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Historic Fort Independence 
and Castle Island 



jUL 



BY A. F. GREGORY 




PRESS OF LOUIS F. WESTON 
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 



1 ii^o UoDi«s rtecfcivc?-: 

MAY 2'i 1(908 



COPYRIGHTED 

1908 

BY A. F. GREGORY 







BOUT two and a half miles from the 
Charlestown Navy Yard is situated the 
most beautiful island in Boston Harbor. 
In the northeast corner of this island, on 
the old site of Castle William, is Fort Independence, 
one of the oldest forts in the United States. 

The building of this fortification was begun in 
1833 ^^^ completed in 1837. The structure, pen- 
tagonal in shape, and built of granite from the quar- 
ries of Cape Ann, is a masterpiece of granite engineer- 
ing. The only entrance to the fort is the sally-port 
on the south, on either side of which are rooms, 
which were formerly used by the officers. 



Ill 




A BATTERY OF TEN INCH GUNS 



IV 



An inclined plane, leading to the ramparts, over 
which the heavy guns used to be drawn, is on the 
west ; while on the east and northeast are two long 
galleries, which were once incased with six and eight 
ten-inch guns respectively. Standing in a prominent 
position on the northwest of the ramparts and guard- 
ing the channel, is a battery of ten-inch guns. 

On each corner of the fort is a bastion, which was 
formerly guarded by the heaviest guns, four fifteen- 
inch guns being encased below and two others placed 
on the ramparts above. Several more batteries were 
constructed on the ramparts above the galleries, and 
beside each one may still be seen a powder magazine. 
Four long flights of stairs lead to the ramparts above. 

A fort was built on the island at the time of the set- 
tlement of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, early in 1634, 
and since that time several forts have been erected on the 
same site and subsequently destroyed. Some of the best 
fighters in the Revolution and in the War of 1812 
received their training in the island fort. After the 
Boston Massacre, the British royal troops, under 
General Gage, were removed from Boston Common 






1 1 



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NORTHEAST GALLERY AND RAMPARTS 



VI 



and quartered at the Castle. In 1861 a small-pox 
epidemic broke out among sixty prisoners held in 
confinement in the northwest bastion. 

At the commencement of hostilities with Spain, 
early in April of 189 8, the Federal government closed 
the island to the public and turned it into a mining 
station. The mines and torpedoes used in the 
Spanish-American War to protect the harbor were 
all charged and unloaded in the fort. On one occa- 
sion, while one of these torpedoes was being trans- 
ported on a tip-cart, the mine fell to the ground and 
exploded, killing several men. The explosion was so 
great that it blew to pieces several granite blocks 
which formed part of the sea wall. 

After the war the island was again given back to 
the city and opened to the public, the government 
retaining the fort for storage and mining school. 

The island was turned over to the city of Boston 
early in 1890, when it was connected with Marine 
Park by a bridge nearly half a mile in length. In 
April, 1907, the fort was officially turned over to 
Boston, 
vii 



The island contains twenty-one acres, and abounds 
in beautiful elm and chestnut trees. 

In the cellar of the one-story brick building, 
still standing after a hundred years, used to be kept 
the prisoners of the State. An electric battery, which 
connects with a bcll-bouy one-fourth of a mile away 
from the east side, is also installed in this house. 

The hospital was formerly a two-story brick 
building, situated on the point of the island. Several 
breastworks and magazines remain to suggest an his- 
torical atmosphere. 

Castle Island is considered the most ideal section 
of the Boston Park System, and one of the best 
summer resorts on the coast. During the summer, 
hundreds of thousands of people visit the place, and 
take great pleasure in watching the incoming and out- 
going vessels of every description which are obliged 
to pass the island. From different points may be 
seen the other islands of the harbor and the various 
forts and lighthouses. 



Vlll 



MAY 21 1908 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



